WWE News: Could Shinsuke Nakamura Be Heading To The Main Roster Following NXT Takeover: Toronto Loss?

WWE NXT star Shinsuke Nakamura ate his first loss in the WWE as he lost to Samoa Joe at WWE NXT Takeover: Toronto to lose his NXT Championship, but does that automatically mean he’s headed to the main roster? Whenever a champion loses, fans always wonder how long it will be until they get called up. However, it is not as if WWE has never brought up a champion from NXT before.

Paige, Sasha Banks, and Kevin Owens were all NXT Champions when they were called up. That said, we could have always seen someone like Shinsuke Nakamura jump up at any point. In fact, we could still see Samoa Joe pop in at any point. Many question, though, if Nakamura will be on the main roster soon or if his loss was just a small loss and his NXT career will continue?

We have to go all the way back to rumors in the summer regarding Nakamura. At the time, it was reported that Shinsuke Nakamura would be called up to the main roster by the end of the year. The situation at that time was that he would end up losing the NXT Title match at WWE NXT Takeover:Brooklyn against Samoa Joe and head up then.

[Image by WWE]

As we know, Joe would lose to Nakamura at that event, and the King of Strong Style would lead NXT as its champion for next few months. With his lost at Takeover: Toronto however, WWE may have simply wanted Shinsuke Nakamura to help WWE NXT out for a bit. There is also a thought that WWE does not feel confident in having anyone else challenge Nakamura for the title other than Samoa Joe and felt they needed to continue the rivalry with both men a little longer.

The issue with this is that NXT is full of top tier heels. Bobby Roode and Eric Young alone could challenge Shinsuke Nakamura for the next number of months and WWE could always help develop someone else by the time those two men are done with Nakamura. In fact, there are many free agents that should be available by next summer who could be brought into NXT to challenge Nakamura or whoever is NXT Champion at that point.

The biggest problem with a Shinsuke Nakamura call-up is that while he’ll be good wherever he ends up going, it hurts NXT to lose him. Nakamura is the top face the brand has right now, and there is no one even close to him in a position to help star-power-wise. Hideo Itami is great and could be the answer, but he continues to get hurt, and it seems like he’s unreliable for now. Meanwhile, Tye Dillinger is over with fans, but he’s nowhere near top face level right now.

[Image by WWE]

With the early exit of Apollo Crews and the departure of Sami Zayn and Finn Balor, the NXT brand has suffered through a lack of top tier faces. Shinsuke Nakamura has been great and a nice help to the roster as the top man in NXT. However, if WWE takes him away from the yellow brand soon, then we may have a big issue with NXT soon unless they can replace Nakamura with someone the fans can truly get behind in a major way.

While the rumors are swirling that Shinsuke Nakamura will be heading up, we should at least consider the idea that he may not go up for a while. This loss may have just to help continue his rivalry with Samoa Joe due to how good it has been. Regardless, WWE could always continue the rivalry in other ways past this. They did it with Joe when he was in his rivalry with Finn Balor. Interestingly enough, Balor got his rematch and went straight to WWE RAW after his loss.

Surely WWE could give us a Shinsuke Nakamura/Samoa Joe rematch in January the night before The Royal Rumble event. That makes a lot of sense, and we may not see Nakamura pop up to the main roster until after he loses then. This may give WWE enough time to create someone worthy of a title match with Samoa Joe near NXT Takeover: Orlando.